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Colombia Moves to Reverse Fracking Ban, Eyes $4 Billion in New Oil Investment
- Colombia's new right-wing government under President Abelardo de la Espriella is moving to reverse a four-year ban on oil and gas exploration, with up to $4 billion in investment reportedly on the table.
- A divided Congress, leftover permitting bottlenecks and the legal risk of governing by decree could slow the rollback even as de la Espriella pushes for “all the fracking possible.”
- Colombia's oil infrastructure suffered 580 attacks and blockades in 2025 alone, and analysts warn security concerns could scare off investors as much as policy uncertainty.
A regime change in Colombia’s federal government is poised to usher in an oil and gas renaissance in the South American nation. After a four-year ban on oil and gas exploration under the previous leftist president Gustavo Petro, a new right-wing administration is eager to open the country’s oil and gas reserves up to foreign investors. But while mining and oil companies are ready to pour billions of dollars into the sector, Colombia’s political systems might not actually be ready for the flood.
It’s anticipated that fossil fuel companies could inject up to $4 billion into Colombia’s oil and gas sector over the next four years. And while this inflow of cash and economic development is extremely welcome, the new administration will have to act very quickly to position itself to make good on those deals. Specifically, according to reporting from Reuters, the government needs to remove regulatory hurdles left over from the previous administration and address critical security concerns that could deter would-be investors.
The previous administration had sought to make Colombia a leader in the global green energy transition by freezing new oil and gas exploration and banning hydraulic fracturing altogether , among other decarbonization-minded policy measures. But while these goals were commendable, they were not entirely feasible in the national context. As of 2024, Colombia still derived 75 percent of its energy from fossil fuels. And now, the public has embraced the opposite approach by electing a President that promised to do “all the fracking possible” on his campaign trail.
"We need to unblock all the bottlenecks that are closely tied to prior consultations, administrative decisions and delays in environmental licensing," Luz Stella Murgas, president of Colombia's natural gas association Naturgas, recently told Reuters.
However, Colombia’s Congress is currently divided, posing a problem for changing legislation related to fracking allowances, royalties, tax structures, and permitting processes. Current president Abelardo de la Espriella may sidestep congressional approval by using decrees to simplify and expedite permitting processes, but this also carries risk of legal challenge.
Plus, there is no guarantee that foreign mining and oil interests will actually buy in once the exploration ban is lifted and new policies are put in place. “It’s not an on and off button,” political risk analyst Sergio Guzmán told nonpartisan global news outlet Semafor. Investors will want to see “long-term fiscal certainty,” Guzmán went on to say.
Politicians will have to act fast to ensure that their grand ambitions to revitalize the oil and gas sector don’t meet the same sorry fate of the previous administration’s ambitions for the green energy sector. "The measures have to be comprehensive, aggressive and swift," Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) president Frank Pearl said. "If one of the key variables is missing from the investment environment, it will not be attractive and we may fail to draw those resources."
In addition to policy and financial concerns, investors will also need reassurance that Colombia is taking care of local insecurity that poses a physical threat to the oil and gas sector. In Colombia, a local network of armed groups have long posed a major threat to the stability of the energy industry. In 2025 alone, the country’s oil infrastructure suffered 580 attacks and blockades. And reestablishing security won’t be easy. A crackdown on localized conflict under de la Espriella could lead to a major flare-up in attacks targeting critical infrastructure.
Experts also say that de la Espriella’s politics will cause flare-ups of conflict within communities that have long resisted the development of fossil fuels in their regions. Mariana Terán Ramirez, a Colombian lawyer and climate activist, wrote: “My concern is not only the environmental impacts of fracking itself, but also the possibility that community voices and democratic participation could be marginalized in the process,” she said. “The decisions made in the coming years will have real consequences for millions of people. Climate change is not an ideological issue.”
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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Haley Zaremba
Haley Zaremba is an energy journalist and researcher with more than a decade of professional experience covering global energy systems, land and natural resources, and…
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